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Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa faces thankless choices: Goar

Since he launched his pre-budget consultations six weeks ago, Finance Minister Charles Sousa has heard a chorus of heart-rending entreaties. Ontarians need affordable housing, a living wage, accessible child care, humane disability benefits, decent welfare rates and reliable home care, to name a few of the essentials.

It has fallen to the Mississauga banker to address the social deficit the Liberals have run up over 11 years. His immediate predecessor, Dwight Duncan, intent on protecting Ontario’s bond rating, slashed social spending, driving up the distress level.

In his pre-budget consultations, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa has heard a chorus of heart-rending entreaties from groups in need of provincial funds. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Obviously Sousa can’t satisfy all the supplicants who will testify in the next five weeks. They know that. But they all hope a few crumbs will fall their way.

How does a politician choose? How does any Ontarian with a social conscience set priorities when so many people are hurting?

The easiest method is to heed the loudest voices. If Sousa takes that approach, child care and home care will benefit. Both affect a large swath of middle-class voters who know how to mobilize their supporters.

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A tempting alternative is to target sectors where the funds will have maximum visibility. If Sousa chooses that option, he’ll assist small organizations that serve readily identifiable clients.

A popular but flawed technique is to be guided by the causes that touch cabinet ministers. Many worry about finding care for aging parents. Some have friends or relatives with mental disorders. A few have children or siblings with disabilities. Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who has a son with a disability, has enacted several programs to assist parents of children with disabilities.

The most challenging method is to identify the severest strains in the social fabric and direct funds there. But that requires a comprehensive knowledge of Ontario’s social services and impartial advisers. Very few finance ministers have either let alone both.

Should Sousa pursue this approach, there are two areas that cry out for attention.

The first is the patchwork of non-profit agencies struggling to help 80,000 Ontarians with intellectual, physical and psychiatric disabilities — conditions ranging from Down’s syndrome to cerebral palsy. The waiting list for developmental services is so long most will never get to the top.

The parents who have always cared for these individuals are aging. They fear their now-adult children will end up on the streets. The 18,000 people working in the sector are so overstretched they have to skimp on day-to-day care to deal with emergencies.

“It is steadily getting worse,” said Verilene Howe, who has been a developmental worker for 20 years. “We can no longer provide individual support or take them on outings. They just sit and watch TV.”

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A second crisis-in-the-making is children’s aid. The province’s 46 children’s aid societies (CAS) are required by law to investigate every time a citizen, teacher, doctor or neighbour calls to report suspected abuse or neglect. They must intervene immediately if a child is in imminent danger. They are also obliged to monitor and support troubled families to protect children living at home.

In a typical year, Ontario’s children’s aid societies receive about 170,000 calls. On any given day, approximately 17,000 youngsters are under the care of a children’s aid society.

Last year, the government decreed that children’s aid societies must balance their budgets, regardless of changes in their workload. It also cut the sector’s budget by $35 million.

Children’s aid societies were forced to find savings. They reduced adoption services and support for foster parents, announced temporary shutdowns and laid off staff. They knew fewer caseworkers meant less frequent visits to homes where children were at risk. But they had no other choice.

The government knew it was gambling with the lives of vulnerable children. The list of victims — Jeffrey Baldwin, Randall Dooley, Katelynn Sampson — was growing. A succession of coroner’s juries had urged Queen’s Park to provide better protection. A succession of children’s ministers read their reports, nodded and did little.

There is no right way to allocate scarce resources. But in a sea of need, the distress calls from these two sectors stand out.

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